Hasan Yousef El-MousawiStudying the Impact of Exchange Rate Fluctuations on the Stock Returns-an Empirical Study on the Stock Companies Listed in the Damascus Securities Exchange During the Crisis Period

The research studies the impact of the exchange rate fluctuations of the local currency on the share dividends exchanged in the stock market, and stating whether there is a trace of the fluctuations occurring in the exchange rate on the fluctuations reflected on the stock returns in the stock market – during the political and economic crisis in Syria. The descriptive analytical approach was adopted to indicate whether there is any direct or indirect impact of fluctuations in the exchange rate of the pound (Lira) against the dollar on the exchange value of the Damascus Securities Exchange Index. The study community consists of all stock companies listed in Damascus Securities Exchange. It covers the total of 23 listed companies. It relied on the period from 1/7/2011 through 12/31/2013 to study the impact of exchange rate fluctuations on stock returns, where the crisis began on 18/03/2011, but reflections on economic life began to appear in mid-2011 when the severe fluctuations in the exchange rate and returns began as a result of lack of stability and economic siege Syria has been witnessing and the study stretched until the year 2013. The data is a sort of daily observations of each of the dependent and independent variable sending with 381 observations. The study reached the many results some of which include that there is an inverse weak between the Syrian pound exchange rate and Damascus Securities Exchange Index returns. The inefficiency of Damascus Securities Exchange Index on the weak level, where, as we have seen, this index is not subject to normal distribution and it is auto-correlated of the third degree and does not settle at the first level; instead, it settles at the first change.